Summer Bustle Dress

Gallery:

August 2011
Wearing my frock at Costume College 2011! More pics from the event can be found here.

June 2011
Wearing my frock to Kat's Victorian Picnic! More pics from the event can be found here.

Dress Diary:

April 5 2011

After the fun I had wearing my B&W bustle gown earlier this year I decided I needed more bustle in my life. In particular I needed a lightweight outfit that I wouldn't die in during a hot/humid summer event, which the B&W does NOT qualify for. (I will never line a bodice in twill again no matter what the pattern says!)

So the Summer Bustle Dress was born. I'm using a lightweight silk taffeta aqua check for the skirt and a sunny yellow cotton lawn for the top. I could have made the whole thing out of the silk but frankly cotton is cooler so the top had to be cotton. The bodice will be based on TV410 (1873 Polonaise).

My main inspiration comes from a fashion plate found on Ebay. I’m going to simplify the decoration on the bottom of the skirt a bit but I’m determined to have rows and rows of bias cut ruffles down there. I’ve been dying for a taffeta skirt with bias-cut ruffles ever since I put some on a 1860s commission last year. *be still my beating heart* I'm found lots of polonaise tops with ruffled underskirts too which is nice.

I not really in the mood to deal with mock-ups so I went straight to the skirt. I’m using the same basic skirt from my B&W (based on TV201 70s Underskirt) 'cause why mess with a good thing. The skirt has been seamed, the top and bottom edges zig-zagged (this check frays like heck!). I’ve also cut out and prepped the waistband. Next up the hem and some ruffles!

April 15 2011

So what do you do when you order a fabric online and it’s not quite the color you wanted? Make it the color you want! At least that is what I did with the fabric for my Summer Bustle dress. As always, my budget was very limited for this project so when I found yellow cotton lawn for a great price I took the gamble and ordered it. I was hoping for a buttery, sunny yellow. What I got was more of an egg yolk yellow, darker and slightly orangey. Um no. So I started experimenting.

I tried Rit color remover, which did remove some color but nowhere near what I was looking for. So I followed some links from a post on the Elegant Musing’s blog. First I visited The Cupcake Goddesswhich lead me to Wisecraft. Yes, yes, I know bleaching is harsh on fabrics, breaking down the actual fibers. But this is a costume, it’s not like I’m going to wear it more than 3 times a year if that. So I tried bleach was thrilled with the results.

Today I finally got around to bleaching my full 7yds of fabric. First I got the fabric thoroughly wet before I put it in the bleach solution (put it through a rinse cycle of the washing machine). For the bleaching I used a ratio of ½ cup bleach to 1 quart water (48 quarts = 24 cups bleach). My test piece was in the solution for 30 minutes but I thought I wanted my fabric a tad paler so I left it in for 40 minutes . I stirred pretty constantly, not to vigorously, just keeping the fabric moving, and when my time was up I drained the tub sink and transferred the fabric to a bathroom sink filled with white vinegar (thank goodness for Costco sized bottles!).

**A word for the wise – don’t do the vinegar rinse the way I did! There was definitely a chemical reaction, which unfortunately I breathed in. I’m fine but it was very uncomfortable and my throat is still a little irritated! My suggestion would be to rinse the fabric a bit in water first and fill a bucket or something with the vinegar and do the rinse outdoors (a well-ventilated room wasn’t good enough). A mask might not be a bad idea too. **

I then threw the fabric in the washer for a rinse cycle and another vinegar rinse before tossing it in the dryer to finish the job.

The color came out paler than I intended – opps! It’s pretty and I think I can live with it but I’m a bit disappointed. Repeat after me, this is why we test! Silly Jenny. I’m going to let it sit for a couple of days to ponder if I’m still unhappy maybe I’ll see what a little yellow fabric dye can do for it… my poor cotton lawn, so abused!

April 17 2011

The skirt to the Summer Bustle is looking like a skirt - yay! I still need to sew on the fastenings and add some ties to bustle up the back but I got it hemmed - all important so I could do the calculations on the ruffles.

So I am now in the tedious and seemingly endless process of ruffle making. *sigh* Remind me again why I had to cut these on the bias? Oh yeah, 'cause they will look AMESOME! Hee.

April 18 2011

Houston we have ruffle! One down, two to go! Thank goodness all the measuring and cutting is behind me...

April 22 2011

Yesterday was a bit of an "eh" day. In the morning I was distracted by the nice spring weather and Dad's work on the new fence then in the afternoon I had a slight attack of food poisoning. I was fine by bed time but it took a several hours to get rid of whatever it was my body did not approve of (we think it was milk that had gone bad). It made me really tired too.

Needless to say my productivity was not at it's peak but I did get some sewing done. I'm continuing to be wishy-washy about the trimming on the skirt so I turned my attention to the bodice. I got the first mock-up cut, sewn and fitted. Due to my unfortunate DNA I did as much re-designing/drafting as fitting. I just can't leave a pattern alone, especially one that has been made up as-is as much as TV410. I was going to use this as the example for my Fitting class at CosCol but now I'm thinking not, too confusing I think.

(The first pic is the original pattern without any changes, the next two are after I finished futzing)

The fitting went well, mostly tweaking the things that are standard tweaks on TV patterns for me. The front fit relatively well but the back was way too short. Even factoring in a slightly high waist the back pleat was way too high for me. Weird. That whole sort-of-dart-instead-of-side-seam thing didn't work well for me either (didn't think it would, being so hippy) so lots of futzing there.

Probably the biggest change was to shift the angle of the bottom front. I decided I wanted it to button to the waist then angle back slightly. I’m hoping to adjust the darts for a prettier sweep back and to avoid awkward bunching at the hips. Frankly I'm hoping to make it more like the illustration than the actual pattern...

April 23 2011
The Victorian polonaise is not playing nice. *gives piles of mock-ups the evil eye* It's really my fault, I'm just not used to fitting a Victorian shape and I don't know the construction of the period well enough to make good guesses of how to get the results I want and still make it period correct (like I can with the 18th century). But I'm blaming the Polonaise anyway 'cause it shouldn't always be about me right?

I really don't have time for this. If I can't get it sorted out today I'm going to have to ditch my design and drastically change what I'm doing. It would be pretty easy if I went really early 1870s, made the front skirt separate (covered with a belt and peplum) and made the neckline square. That would get rid of all my difficult areas. But I'm feeling stubborn about making the TV pattern work for me. I'm not sure why...

April 23 2011
URRRRGGGGG! This dress is a total Hydra - every time I get one area looking good I'm back to square one with another. It's not as bad as three problems for every one fixed but somehow it's worse that it's the same heads coming back again and again. It's a vicious cycle and I feel so stupid and pathetic.

I hate my life. All I wanted was a new dress with bias ruffles. So I research for months to design the perfect dress, buy an expensive pattern and after 3 days of bitter work all I have is crap. And it's not getting any better. Gah, it's so unfair.

I don't even want to wear this anymore. If it wasn’t for the pretty bias ruffles I would just ditch the whole idea. A pity party sounds much better than "make it work" right now.

So I have three options, all of which I hate:
1. keep on the vicious cycle hoping I'll have a breakthrough
2. ditch the long polonaise style in favor of an earlier belt at the waist/peplum
3. have a martini and forget about the whole idea until June

April 25 2011

It was a long hard slog but I in the end I fitted the polonaise to my satisfaction. Dude I am getting to old for projects like this!

After 2 days of multiple mock-ups and fittings I was getting nowhere. I dubbed the project the Hydra bodice - every time I would get one area looking good I'd be back to square one with another. It's not as bad as three problems for every one fixed but somehow it's worse that it's the same heads coming back again and again. It was a vicious cycle and I was left feeling stupid and pathetic. By Saturday night I was really in the depths of despair over this dress, questioning everything about my life and generally wanting to crawl into a hole and give up costuming forever. Luckily I have some awesome friends and I’m rather stubborn.

I got lot of great advice from my amazing friends/family including the encouragement to relax, have a martini, put my dress in a corner to let it think about how naughty it was, and to stop panicking and think about what I really wanted. Was my goal a dress I was willing to go through anything to make spot-on or was it a dress I was willing to compromise along the way on as long as the final result was pretty?

In the end I took all the above advice starting with making a Lemon Drop martini, putting my feet up and really thinking about what I wanted to accomplish here instead of how to fix the mess that was my dress. Somehow that thought process helped to clear my mind and I was able to let go of the vision I had in my head but was without the skills to execute. As Mom graciously reminded me - while I’m been a costumer for 10+ years this is only the second bustle era dress I’ve ever made, and only my 3rd Victorian era dress. Apparently I picked one of the hardest combinations of styles to fit on MY body. Just my luck. So after my ponderings I set aside my original design/vision to be picked up later on when I have more experience, reference materials and knowledge of fitting from this era. I decided will master this dress (see the stubbornness!) but it doesn’t have to be this week.

So with another Lemon Drop martini in hand (sewing is much better with alcohol I decided), I set to work Sunday night (after all the family Easter obligations were over) packing away all the mock-ups I’d done up to that point and started over. I decided to make life easier by first changing the neckline (to a square rather that the high “V” that was giving me so many gray hairs) and adding the polonaise skirt separately so I could focus my energies on just fitting the bodice. (thanks to Katherine & Loren for that suggestion!)

So I did something I probably should have done in the beginning and pulled out the master patterns from my fitted B&W bodice and compared them to TV410. The patterns must use the same base because they were identical, only my personal tweaks and the front being different of course (the B&W has an inset). This gave me a starting point for the back and sides and in the end made fitting the sleeve way easier (since I could use my corrected B&W sleeve as a starting point).

So I was left with only the front section to worry about. I was helped by some great notes on fitting Victorian bodices from Michaela - The CF seam on this period is all curvy and wonky looking for a reason and modern patterns never feature it (basically because you can't pattern it as it is a consequence of fitting). Leave the sides as they are and unpin the shoulders- if you look at Patterns of Fashion and extant (stripy) garments you'll see just how differently they are shaped through there. If you follow a stripe from side bust it winds up mid shoulder or even higher. Another feature modern patterns don't have. You fit from sides up through the shoulder and sides through to centre pinching out the excess fabric-- quite the opposite of modern fitting where we smooth from CF to sides.

This got me experimenting during the fitting, moving the front section around to see what got rid of the most wrinkles. I found that by angling the front down and towards the side the gaping at the neckline disappeared and the excess fabric could be caught up in a large dart. I have not idea if this is historically viable or if I'm breaking some cardinal rule of grain lines but honestly I don't care – Jenny Got Her Groove Back!

Despite the late hour the blind panic had gone and with a bodice had stopped being a "Hydra" I could work calmly and efficiently, further tweaking and perfecting the darts and fitting. I got as far as the first sleeve mock-up before I collapsed into bed.

I spent this morning on sleeve mock-ups. In the general range of sleevil-ness it wasn’t too bad. The hardest thing was getting the front (where the sleeve attaches to the front bodice) right. I had to drastically re shape that area to get it comfortable and not pull-y (that is a technical term) but it is a slight drop shoulder so I guess a strange shape to the sleeve head makes sense. I’m just not used to drop shoulders!

The finial mock-ups were then taken apart and a master pattern traced. I’m now in the process of cutting out the bodice. I'm feeling emotional and mentally exhausted from the weekend (sewing + family stuff) but I'm quietly confident I can get this outfit finished before I leave for CosCon on Thursday. I just need to decide what color the hat should be... :>

April 27 2011

The Picnic Dress is progressing but slowly. I didn't get nearly as much done as I needed to yesterday, thanks to real life and my inability to focus. *sigh*

The bodice is all together, the sleeves all but attached and hemmed and skirts of the polonaise in various stages of being prepped for attachment. I need to put it all together and trim it. I was hoping to get away with not having a belt but I don't think that is going to work so that is added to my list.

I also have ruffles to attach to the skirt, the hat to trim and fastenings to add to everything. Oh and I have no idea what else I'm wearing this weekend. It's all coming out of the closet but still I usually have a plan at this point. I am SO overwhelmed but it's too late to stop and say oh well. Thank goodness I'll have some down time Thursday night... I'm going to need it!

April 28 2011
Despite the very late night I pulled again last night the picnic dress isn't finished. It's close though and I'd already planned on brining my machine so hopefully I can get it wearable before the end of CosCon. *sigh* I hate sewing at an event but a girls got to do what a girls got to do!

May 3 2011
It's so good to be home!!! Despite the Costume Con being "special" I had a great time with my awesome costuming friends.

I didn't do one lick of sewing once I got to CosCon so I didn't finish or wear the Picnic Bustle. It's funny I was so determined to wear it at any cost before I left and as soon as I got there I didn't care anymore. I was ready for some vacation time with my peeps and it didn't matter which costume I was wearing. So I lugged my sewing machine to NJ to learn the valuable lesson that I will never use one at an event. Oh well!

May 6 2011
Please forgive the radio silence here the past few days, I haven't been feeling well. I think I may have caught the cold that my roomie Katherine had at CosCol. Or perhaps it's just all the exhaustion and stress of the past few weeks catching up with me.

I've also been having issues with my wrists so I've been trying to stay off the computer. I really abused my wrists at CosCon, doing things I know better than to do like carrying sewing machines for long distances.

I'm also taking a little hiatus from sewing. I need a mental break from it and a time to regroup before starting my CosCol wardrobe in earnest. It will also give me a chance to do some spring cleaning, filing and organizing - I'm so behind and it's been driving me insane!

May 10 2011

I know I said I was taking a hiatus from sewing but I have been doing some little projects the last few days. I pleated some of the lace that is destined for the Picnic bustle skirt. Exciting no?

June 11 2011

My Picnic Bustle Dress has finally come together. It's been a grueling process, what with Real Life (TM) rearing it's ugly head, endless pleating and having to take large parts of it completely apart to redo/alter (all those things I let slide in the madness that was my sewing life before CosCon) but it was all worth it - the outfit looks as lovely, cool, flouffy and fun as I originally envisioned it! *happy butt wiggle*

I'm off to Kat's's Victorian Picnic today so you only get a teaser photos - more after the party!

June 12 2011

I had a fabulous time at Kat's Victorian Picnic yesterday!

The day was not without it's hiccups (running late, loads of traffic, not eating enough, the brutality of 9 hours round-trip in the car) but the weather was nice, the food yummy, the company lovely & entertaining and my outfit so fun to wear! I'm so glad went!

I'm super pleased with the way the Picnic Dress came out. It was worth the frustration, alteration and hassle the dress caused me - the ruffles make me so happy! I need to adjust the bustle ties in the back a bit before CosCol but it's an easy fix. I can't wait to wear it again!

The rest of my photos from the day are on Flickr